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Ask-A-Linguist - Message details
Subject: Standard vs. 'proper' English
Question:
Is ''proper'' English really proper at all? The Brits love to view their version of the language as ''standard'' but if they changed it, then it is not standard at all. Whose pronunciation has changed the most -- the British or the American?

Noah Webster said that the snobbery of British aristocracy changed the language in England. (Wikipedia). But I don't know if this was just his patriotism speaking or if it was the truth, or when this took place. Obviously he made this comment in the first few decades of our nation's history. Webster gave us Americans spellings such as center, color, neighbor, and so on.

From a Hungarian colleague I have learned that British English has changed more in vocabulary then American English. This is determined by viewing writings by authors of the same era on both sides of the Atlantic, and comparing it with current usage.

Thank you,
- Steve

Reply:
I join my two colleagues Elgin and Pyatt, well, almost. There is certainly no one spoken standard English. I however think there are a number of standard dialects, including three in the United States -- Southern, General Mid Western, and New England. There are also nonstandard versions of these.

I'd like to focus on one thing you say, namely your passage that reads:

The Brits love to view their version of the language as ''standard'' but if they changed it, then it is not standard at all.

I infer from this that you think that a standard form is somehow fixed for all time and that once it changes, it can no longer be standard. As my colleagues have written, "standard" language is a social and cultural phenomenon. It is not inherent in the language itself. A standard language is simply a dialect of that language that has political, social, economic, and military and police power. Standard languages NEVER exist in tribal societies-- they can't. Only in State level societies can standard languages be found, and not all of them.

So -- if the British ("Brit" is British and not American, so far as I am aware) can enforce their "standard" on the rest of the world it doesn't matter if it changed more than American, AngoIrish, or anything else. It can still be a standard. But then what is "British"? Educated Scots in Edinburgh certainly do not talk like educated Sassenachan, oops, Englishmen in Exeter.

U of Cincinnati
Dept of Anthropology

Reply From: Joseph F Foster    click here to access email
Date: Oct-20-2009
Other Replies:
  1. Re: Standard vs. 'proper' English Elizabeth J Pyatt    (Oct-20-2009)
  2. Re: Standard vs. 'proper' English Suzette Haden Elgin    (Oct-20-2009)
  3. Re: Standard vs. 'proper' English Anthea Fraser Gupta    (Oct-21-2009)
  4. Re: Standard vs. 'proper' English James L Fidelholtz    (Oct-20-2009)
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